Tarot and Channeling Spirits

So, this. Tarot brings with it a lot of baggage. A guy named Alec Satin made a name for himself on the Internet for about twenty years as an expert in Tarot reading and interpretation. In 2015, he experienced a significant conversion event and became a devout Lutheran Christian, at which point he not only ceased his own Tarot work; he loudly denounced it as evil and a connection to Satanic forces. Similarly, angel spiritist Doreen Virtue had a supernatural conversion event which led to her denouncing angel readings and immediately taking her angel products out of print in a desire to purge all association with the occult and New Age thought.

Are their claims legitimate? I have no reason to believe otherwise, so I have no choice but to say “for now, yes”. Of course, it's worth noting Doreen Virtue recently scrubbed her conversion testimony from the Internet and has now stated she's pretty sure her vision of Jesus Christ was actually of a demonic being trying to mislead her, but that somehow led her to Christianity as The One True Religion. It's difficult to lend credibility to someone who seems uncertain of her own experiences, at the very least.

I do know that there are people who do genuinely experience interactions with what appear to be sentient apparitions, forces, feelings, or angels, or other entities. I have no idea if these are hallucinations, neurological defects, or legitimate spiritual beings. It doesn't actually matter, in the end.

Don't trust any ethereal beings or spirits who claim to be your guide into the metaphysical realm. The reason I say this is simple: you have no way of knowing if the thing you're interacting with is benevolent or malevolent. Since there is no Angie's List of spirit beings, your best bet is to just avoid them entirely. I've noticed that a lot of conversion stories from ex-Tarot enthusiasts involve a lot of interactions with some supernatural entity that's able to predict the future in undeniable ways.

I have no idea if any of those stories are true (and there's a good chance they aren't, this is the Internet after all), but if even 1% of them are, that means there's a non-trivial chance your channeled spirit is actually a malevolent, chaotic entity trying to do something that definitely isn't good for us here in the mortal realm.

There's a line from Harry Potter that I really like (judge me if you want; cultural landmarks are important ways of conveying timeless concepts to new generations, so embrace them):

“Ginny!” said Mr. Weasley, flabbergasted. “Haven't I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain?”

You can't vet a spirit, because nobody else can see it or confirm what you're experiencing. It's best to avoid anything of the sort, because you simply cannot know its motives and have no way of countering whatever it is they have in store for you. It's just not worth it.

As far as whether or not Tarot cards are a door to the spirit realm, I'm pretty confident the answer is “no”. I'm a Second Amendment advocate, and one of the arguments I hear from gun-control advocates is that guns kill people. This is a fallacy - guns don't kill people. Guns are tools, which in the wrong hands, are used to wrongly take the lives of others. On its own, a gun is an inert tool. There is no morality to its existence, and its existence does not necessarily result in death.

Tarot cards are a tool. Like all tools, they can be used for good, used for evil, or just used for some innocuous purpose. If you want to actually try and access, contact, or channel a sentient non-corporeal entity, you don't need Tarot cards (or an Ouija board, etc.) to do so.

Like firearms, a deck of Tarot cards can be a powerful tool - one that is seductive for some, making it increasingly harder for the individual to make decisions without consulting the cards. If you find you can't separate yourself from such a persona, my advice is to stay away from reading Tarot. There's no reason to entertain your own self-destruction, even if you think you can control yourself and prevent it.